Category Archives: Technology

It’s aimed at helping small business owners understand how to reach customers through the internet.

Experts say 97-percent of consumers look for local businesses online, but less than 30-percent of small businesses report having a website.

Whitney Cox is with Google.

“It’s so important for businesses to be online, like I said 97 percent of consumers use the web to find local goods and services, so no longer do we turn to our computer throughout the day, now we turn to our phones.”

Cox said 10 Google experts will be available to help small business owners start a website, and get their business on Google Maps.

“If I need directions I turn to my phone, if I wanna read reviews I turn to my phone, if i’m waiting in line a the coffee shop I turn to my phone. So now our phones are indispensable shopping tools, and it’s so so important that businesses get online and reach customers in those moments that matter.”

The event is taking place at the Flint Institute for the Arts from 9am to 12 pm. Cox said the first half will be seminar, and the second will be workshop based. The event is free and registration can be found at https://events.gybo.com/events/246/register

The Michigan Public Service Commission says utilities are seeing attacks daily, from domestic and international sources. Now the state is creating rules to protect Michigan’s utilities from cyber-attacks.

The Lansing Board of Water and Light announced this month they paid a ransom of 25-thousand dollars to unlock their own communication system from a cyber-attack that occured in April. Continue reading →

The virtual reality app launched for smartphone users in July and quickly became the most-downloaded app in history….that’s more than 500 million downloads. Everyone wanted in on this game. But…Pokemon—and pokemon enthusiasts for that matter—aren’t a new thing. Not by a long shot.Continue reading →

The Great Lakes Commission created a web tool designed to prevent sales of aquatic invasive species over the Internet. Now, the commission is working to get it into the hands of state and federal regulators.Continue reading →

The A4 study, as it’s known, is focused on people 65 to 85 years old who still have a normal memory, but have early signs of Alzheimer’s.

These people will be administered a drug to see if it will slow or stop the impacts of Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Reisa Sperling is the Director at the Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment.

“This is a new study and what’s particularly new about it is trying it in people who don’t yet have symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. So we’re really trying to change the way we think about Alzheimer’s disease and focus on prevention, rather than most of the trials which unfortunately have not done so well at later stages of Alzheimer’s disease.”

Dr. Sperling says the study has been going on since 2014, and results are expected in 2020.

Sperling says the study will cost around $140 million and is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

The Department of Environmental Quality approved supports for those four spots, but delayed action on 18 others that Enbridge requested.

Environmental groups said they’re hopeful this means the government is getting serious about a line shutdown.

But Michael Barnes, a spokesperson for Enbridge, said that’s not how he sees it.

“We think that we’re all working towards the same thing and that’s to protect the straits and keep energy flowing into Michigan.”

Officials with the DEQ said they will delay a decision on the 18 additional supports until two studies on the risks of the pipeline and alternative ways for transporting the oil are completed. Results of those studies are expected early next year.

Officials with EJ, formerly East Jordan Iron Works, say the company is planning to move 13 miles; From the small town of East Jordan closer to the smaller town of Elmira in Antrim County.Continue reading →

Edgar Benning is the General Manager CEO of the Mass Transportation Authority in Flint.

“We are replacing vehicles that are over 20 years old, that have been refurbished and rehabbed to keep them on the road and so we’re replacing vehicles that operated on diesel with compressed natural gas transit coaches.”

Benning says the grant will allow for 23 transit coaches to be replaced.

He says the Mass Transportation Authority in Flint is moving to a 100 percent alternative fuel fleet, and this grant brings them a step closer to that goal.

Three vessels are sailing Lake Michigan using sonar technology to survey prey fish.

The objective of the survey is threefold; to forecast whether fish numbers are growing or shrinking, to understand how predator fish numbers may be effected, and to prepare fishing markets for potential changes in fish populations. Continue reading →